Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Previews

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on December 12th, 2011

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We were given the freedom to pick and choose the kinds of quests we wanted to undertake, but the main quest seemed the most enticing, as we were given the opportunity to help free the city of Mel Senshir from the Tuatha raiders. Without going into too much of the story details, our job was to help fight against the enemy and ultimately take down the Niskaru Lord Balor, a gargantuan beast with Jabba the Hut's figure and arms of a crustacean. It also shoots a deadly laser from its one eye. It was an impressive creature for sure, and we were eager to get down to business.

What's great about this quest is that if you agree to help the people of Mel Senshir (you could choose not to) you are treated with a cut scene to show you just how massive this battle is going to be. A scene that's reminiscent of a large-scale battle you'd find in Lord of the Rings, you genuinely feel like you've been thrust into their plight. Even though you're weaving your way through the elven fortress, trying to fend off the Tuatha, when you do get a glimpse of the raging battle going on outside, you can see the sea of men and women fighting desperately on the battlefield. You're also accompanied by several guards to hold the city so you'll never feel alone. There's also an element of choice, so by helping these people, you'll eventually be able to freely explore the surrounding region. And if not, we could only guess.

The abundance of quests in Amalur doesn't limit you to a linear storyline, so if you're a fan of branching out you can really choose to live a life of contradictions. My necromancer-rogue hybrid was a thief, and while he ultimately does the right thing when people's lives are on the line, he also loves to steal. One minute I find myself on epic quest lines, out to save the world, the next I'm working for a cult of thieves, stealing treasures from priests. Don't judge me; my character has issues from growing up poor! Ehem, the point I'm trying to make is that the large number of quests and side-quests, including what look to be great faction quests for the likes of thieves, give you the freedom to tell your own story.

I'm torn on the combat system. On one hand, it's nice to play a game like this where standard mobs pose a genuine threat. Even normal encounters in the wilderness can be fairly brutal, with powerful creatures tearing into the hero with spells, claws, weapons, and other forms of attack. A single enemy is rarely overwhelming once you master the timing of their offensive moves, but few enemies attack singly. Even bosses work in teams; the key battle in the story sequence featured at my recent hands-on consisted of a powerful enemy general, a pair of respawning mooks, and an invincible titan occasionally blasting deadly energy beams from the background.

Involving as the combat can be, it also stands as the most frustrating portion of Reckoning. That boss battle bested me several times, but its victory seemed cheap and unearned: The titan's energy blast had an unerring ability to hit me for an instant kill, even if it seemed like I'd timed my dodged perfectly. Ultimately, I only came out on top through what felt like luck, smashing the dodge button after being caught in the beam. The automated nature of the lock-on system is also irritating, since you have very little control over which enemies you target. The game's A.I. tends to snap to whichever enemy is closest to you, which is frustrating when you have another foe on the ropes and suddenly find yourself pumping arrows into a perfectly healthy target rather than polishing off a straggler. Because the enemy's real advantage is strength in numbers, your best tactic is usually to thin out their numbers... something that can be difficult when maintaining a target lock is so difficult.

Without splitting chips till the final version of the game is released, the impression so far is a few aspects of the core gameplay fit really well, while others may end up proving irksome. Described by Studio Head Schilling as a mix between God of War and Skyrim, some players might get turned off what seems like simplistic combat at first, though the developers are trying to reassure gamers that button mashing will not get you through. Furthermore, you'll spend a lot of time in dialogue, so after playing the likes of Mass Effect and Skyrim, the system here little cumbersome, even if the dialogue itself and voicing were very good. Otherwise, everything plays pretty well and once you've learned what button does what, you'll be seamlessly gallivanting around Amalur doing just as you please, when you please.

Players have a shield to block strikes as well as a quick dodge-roll maneuver to get out of sticky situations. Varied magical abilities, both offensive and defensive, can be accessed with the tap of a button, as can a stock of restorative and buff-granting items. The coolest and flashiest skill, however, is the titular (Reckoning) mode, which you can enter once you have filled up a special gauge in combat. Enemies move more slowly and your strikes are more damaging in Reckoning mode, and should you bring a foe to death's door, you can perform a special kill that (severs the threads of fate) and rewards you with additional experience points.

Combat is fast-paced and constantly keeps you as much on your toes as a strict action game would, emphasizing positioning and timing just as much as strategy. The only problem I felt in combat was the lack of an ability to lock onto targets with the close-range melee weapons. As such, you automatically try to attack the closest enemy (or the enemy you're moving towards), which might not really be what you want to do.

Mike Nelson, Editor: The last time I saw KoA was during a brief 20-minute demo at E3. Now that I've spent a couple of hours with this post-alpha build, I feel like it's best described as an amalgam of many different games: Fable, God of War, and Elder Scrolls, to name a few. (The team wasn't afraid to acknowledge those as some of their influences.) I dig it, and the longer I played, the more it grew on me, especially when I started to run around the open world picking up side quests. Before I get too carried away, was there anything that stood out to you right away during our hands-on session?

Dan Stapleton, Editor in Chief: Definitely the fighting. After 100-plus hours of whacking people with pointy metal sticks in Skyrim, the flashy, energetically animated third-person combat in KoA is a welcome change of pace. It has more in common with a fighting game than typical RPG combat -- tapping the left mouse button sent my pre-built level 20 warrior to work chopping up the somewhat-generic evil elf soldiers with his sword. Once I got the hang of the timing of a few of the simple combo moves (click, pause, click), learned to parry enemy strikes with my shield, and swapped to my secondary warhammer to deal with slow-moving single targets, it really got going -- and that's before I mixed in some spells. It's not quite as much fun as Batman: Arkham City's free-flowing brawls, but it's some very satisfying combat.

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